Storm Part II

We lost power for about 20 hours overnight, so here's how I spent my evening last night:

I hovered around these candles, attempting to read a magazine for several hours because I was not at all tired after 2 days of doing nothing.

Luckily Raf is home now (one broken engine later), after a busy, soggy night. I cleaned and paid bills while he slept and now we're just lazing around.

Maddy, meanwhile, is busy enjoying the fire, along with her puppy. How ridiculous is this picture?

Storm of the Century (or 2009)

Had off yesterday for Veteran's Day so Raf and I headed to the ocean front to check out the conditions of the big nor'easter, the residual effects of Hurricane Ida. We knew it was raining hard and windy, but we were shocked by the power of the storm! The wind was blowing us like crazy:

By the time we got back in the car (after about 5 minutes), our pockets, ears, eyebrows, hair, EVERYTHING was filled with sand. We tried to snap some pictures of the ocean swell and blowing sand, but couldn't face north to see the picture we were taking. Here are our best attempts:

 

 

School was actually canceled today due to flooding and wind. There's talk of a possible delay/cancellation for tomorrow as well. Crazy! Needless to say, Maddy and I stayed in today. Her thoughts:

 

Here's what Kev probably looks like at work today:

Wedding Awards 2009

Wedding Awards 2009

*Disclaimer: These awards are capricious and arbitrary. A winner does not mean the other weddings were losers. Really, it's just a chance for me to showcase the awesomeness of all the weddings.

Best pictures

I will get in touch with Carrie-Anne to find out the name of her photographer for anyone who is interested, but these pictures were absolutely breathtaking. I was so impressed! The black and whites are amazing too. I think I'm so fascinated because there were so few posed pictures. They were all just completely natural.

Best cake

I initially chose this cake because the topper was so adorable. But this cake was good. They had chocolate and vanilla to choose from and the icing was so smooth. This cake was a definite hit.

Best dinner

I have no pictures of the actual food because this was my first wedding of the season and I didn't realize that this would be the best idea I saw. The Mease's had several buffet stations with different types of food in different locations. This was awesome because you got a great assortment of food and no one had to wait to eat. I especially loved that strawberry salad dressing from the food on the outside patio. Delicious!

Best groom dancing

This award definitely goes to Todd for the yellow submarine dance, but I've got to say that Tim's solo dance is a very close second. Both hilarious.

Best bride dancing

  

Loved Sarah and her bridesmaids' dance at Mikey's wedding. So unexpected! We had front row seats for the whole performance.

Best reception music

C'mon. Look at these shenanigans.I loved that the music segued nicely from dinner to partying, but no songs came on that Tim and Sara wouldn't normally listen to. They picked very danceable non-lame tunes. Well done guys!

Best alcohol

Let me take this opportunity to apologize to the Freeburn's for the lack of awards in thier name. Unfortunately I have no recollection of a good portion of the wedding, due to this award: best alcohol. Thanks for a festive birthday guys! The world got to see me in rare form on this day...

Best ceremony

I loved this ceremony! It was short and sweet and in a beautiful setting. The minister was Tim's brother and he delivered a very personal sermon. This ceremony was damn near perfect.

Best reception gimmick

This was such a fun idea! Carrie-Anne and RJ had a photo booth and everyone went in to get pictures instantly. We got to keep a copy and another copy went into an album where you could write your own caption. Becky's husband, Bubba, did a Dwight K. Schrute photo with the caption "I don't smile. Smiling is a sign of weakness."

Best flowers

I loved Colleen's flowers. This was the only wedding where I physically held the bridal bouquet. Holy heavy! The flowers were the perfect contrast to the color of the dresses. Beautiful. This one also wins for best bridesmaid dresses. I loved the different dresses for the maids/matrons of honor and the bridesmaids.

Best vows

 

Carrie-Anne and RJ wrote their own vows and they were adorable. I teared. No lie. Carrie-Anne's were rhyming, Blue Ball email style. Perfect.

Best best man speech

 I don't have any pictures of the actual speech, but this picture accurately portrays the dynamic between Tim and his brother Andy. And Andy's speech accurately portrayed that dynamic as well. I laughed, I cried (not really) and I was really impressed that Andy could craft such a speech, yet not at all surprised that he was able to deliver it as well as he did.

Best after party

Burkey's outfit says it all. We went back to the hotel where the guests were staying after Todd and Colleen's wedding and hung out for a bit. I really love those guys. This was a great time.

Best wedding dress

Not sure if this picture does it justice, but Carrie-Anne's dress was amazing. Granted, it was black along the rim by the end of the night, but it looked so comfortable and so her!

And finally....

Best overall

This award did not go to Todd Day because he is the one and only subscriber of my blog, although it wouldn't hurt the rest of you to take a hint and get on board. We had such a good time at this wedding, both at the rehearsal dinner and on the day/night of. Good friends, good times, not a day that will soon be forgotten.

Congratulations to all the happy couples!

I Wish I had a Girlfriend Who Had Her Life Saved By a Blanket Tonight...

Kevin's five day is busy this time...

Right after work, we went over to Karen and Ryan's for the annual oyster roast. Most of the time was spent with drink in hand by the fire so here's the only shot I got:

Raf made us orange crushes all night. Needless to say, I'm happy no pictures were taken of me!

Raf made me another delicious breakfast Saturday morning. Featured here: French toast with strawberry maple syrup butter sauce.

We did a six mile beach walk yesterday. This shot features the part where the wind was at our backs. Imagine our surprise at 48th street (we were parked on 1st) when Maddy's ears wouldn't even lay flat because of the wind! Despite losing my new gloves (and finding them again), this was a good walk. We're going again today, too. I guess this will be a not-so-lazy Sunday.

Last night we went to a party at Kevin's fireman friend's house in Creeds. For those in PA, Creed's is like Quarryville. I truly felt like we were in Pennsylvania. It was a fun time though. Here are some of the fireman and Kev's ringer friend, Jedi Pong.

This was his partner for the evening. Yes, that means Kevin drank twice the beer. It was an interesting ride home. Luckily I had my fun last night!

And this wasn't even the end of the night!

Had another gorgeous beach day today... felt like locals when we saw Ryan and Nick within seconds of parking. Kristen and the kids were taking some pictures for us.

Here's what Maddy did most of the time. After 10 months of life, she finally discovered the joy of digging.

She was tired after her long walk and needed to relax.

Unfortunately, she kept eating the sand so her face was completely covered. So were we, because she kept kicking the sand back on us.

This one might end up being our Christmas card.

Doggy Playdate

Maddy plays with Tetley.

Halloween 2009

What an awesome day!

It was such a beautiful, sunny, warm (80's) day that we had to go to the beach and ended up walking nearly 5 miles (18,000 steps for me and 9,000 for Raf). Here are some of the 2 million pictures I took:

Guess what Maddy did immediately upon touching the sand? (Zoom for answer)

I don't know if this picture does it justice, but it was SO windy and it the sand looked really cool

 Love this picture

Here's how it looked the first time, when a wave came up and Maddy got scared

Here's what real dogs do at the beach

Dog's weren't the only thing we saw...

On to Halloween...

After our long walk, Maddy was none too thrilled to try on her costume:

Kev texted this picture to people with the caption "If you were a hotdog, would you eat yourself? I know I would."

Here's a picture of Will and Brayden, visiting Kevin at his station the other day.We didn't get to see them yesterday, but they were an adorable fireman and dalmatian.

Facebook | BJ Raftery's Photos - Halloween 2009

We went to Karen and Ryan's for dinner with Kev's parents. Imagine how surprised we were to find the Psimas' transformed into Buffy and Wyatt (or any other such combination of hoity-toity names), plus a tiny pirate and a chicken:

Let's take a closer look at the little ones... Here's Brynn the pirate:

... and Camryn the chicken

... and Camryn the ghost

 

 

While the Psimas' trick-or-treated, Raf and I held down the fort, giving out candy and tending the fire:

We dressed as Peg and Al Bundy:

 

 

Juuuust kidding. We're good, but not that good.  Here we are for serious:

All in all, it was a fun day. Never a dull moment. Case in point: